Witnesses
explained to the panel how he had told year six pupils in a transition
day lesson that Martin Luther King was a “fraud and had embezzled lots
of money”, and that Rosa Parks “did not really exist”.
The matter came to light when a parent complained about the lesson, which was meant to be on medieval history."
In a survey of federal projects constructed with PWA funding in 1939:
“The population of Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama, was
66,079 in 1930. Its city hall was destroyed by fire in 1932 and shortly
thereafter a grant from the P.W.A. made possible the construction of a
new building, which was placed on a site adjoining the State capitol. (Correction---it does NOT adjoin the state Capitol, and is in fact seven blocks away from it.)
It is two stories in height and accommodates the water department,
police department, tax collector, health department, engineering
department, and the mayor and his staff. In addition, it provides an
auditorium with a seating capacity of 2,300, a stage, and miscellaneous
offices.
The exterior walls are red brick trimmed with stone, and the building
is fireproof throughout and air-conditioned. It is E-shaped in plan
with over-all dimensions of 131 by 311 feet. It was completed at a
construction cost of $623,815 and a project cost of $687,493.”
"The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution will print its final edition TODAY,
closing a 157-year chapter even as the newsroom doubles down on a
digital future.
But
inside and around the venerable institution, another story is
unfolding: a chorus of veterans who built the paper — on copy desks and
carrier routes, in pressrooms, bureaus and features sections — pausing
to say goodbye to the thud on the lawn, the rumble of the presses, the
ink that smudged fingers and white linen blouses."
Every family has a history. Here’s how to make sure it’s handed down.
What happens when the children are the historians.
By Bob Brody
Bob
Brody, a consultant and essayist, is author of the memoir “Playing
Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age.”
In
May, I visited an Italian high school to encourage a classroom of
students to explore their family histories. My audience was almost all
teenage boys. Some slouched, fidgeted and talked among themselves during
my presentation. A few scoffed, altogether justifiably, at my hapless
Italian.
I’ve
long taken an interest in family history, beginning with my own. I have
interviewed my mother about her life growing up profoundly deaf, and my
maternal grandmother about raising a deaf child during the Depression. I
once asked my father’s mother about her lineage only to discover, after
she died, that she left me an hour-long audiotape containing some
answers.
Even
so, I regret leaving many questions unasked, and I know many others
feel the same. This preoccupation ultimately led to creating a blog
called “Letters to My Kids,” urging parents to invest in their past and preserve family history as a legacy for future generations.
But
lately I’ve wondered: What if the protocol were reversed? What if the
children, rather than the parents, were the amateur historians?
Four
years ago I migrated to Guardia Sanframondi, an ancient hillside town
of 4,900 people in southern Italy. Farmers here have worked the
countryside for centuries, chiefly in vineyards and olive groves. It’s a
place of rich history and deep family roots. If any place were to know
its own history, surely this would be it.
I
tested that idea at the high school around the corner from my home,
where I instructed the students to ask their elders certain questions: How was your childhood? Why did you get married? What have you tried to teach your children? The broader and more open-ended the question, I suggested, the more revealing the answer.
Two
weeks later, they turned in the essays I had assigned. Some, invited to
do so, read the reports aloud, in faltering English with an Italian
accent. The stories that emerged brought together the everyday and the
expected with the surprising and the revelatory.
“My
parents started dating after they had an argument during rehearsal for a
play,” one student wrote. “When my father apologized to her, my mother
forgave him, and they went out to eat for the first time in Naples.”
“My
mother met my father when she was young,” wrote another, “since her
father had a flock, and her future husband was there to shear the sheep,
they started hanging out.”
“My
grandparents got married because my grandmother was pregnant with my
mother’s sister,” a student read aloud. “Back then, if you had children,
you had to get married.”
“My
grandmother passed away at 36 years old, a few hours after giving birth
to my mother,” wrote another. “So my grandfather, Luciano, raised my
mother and her brothers and sisters. Despite these difficulties, they
never lacked for anything.”
Most
of this information, I learned, was new to the students. A few of the
boys came up to me after class to tell me how glad they were to have
found it out. One said he now better understood and appreciated his
parents and grandparents, especially the struggles they faced. Another
said he was eager to discover more.
History
is lost unless documented. That lesson applies to families as much as
it does to politics, culture and war. If we neglect to capture our
personal family history, we’ll never know what happened, much less how
or why. And once we learn who our family was, we might also learn who we
are.
If
our children were ever tested on personal family history, many would
probably fail. Some years back, I conducted an informal survey of 100
parents and grandparents about recording their family histories. Three
out of four said they “should” do it. Four in 10 said they always
planned to do it but never got around to it. Kids today could grow up to
feel — and do — the same.
The
holiday season is one of the few times of the year that multiple
generations of many families come together to celebrate. As a resolution
of the new year, what if the youngest of us, who have the most to
learn, were invited to take on the role of family historian? All they
would have to do to begin is go around the dinner table asking
questions.
Who
are your mother and father? Who are your grandparents? Only if children
ask these questions are they likely to get complete answers. And once
they know, they’ll know for a lifetime. Then, when the time comes,
they’ll be ready to pass it along.
Which popular Alabama lake is crawling with snakes?
Lake Martin
is one of Alabama’s largest and most popular man-made lakes, playing a
significant role in the state’s recreation and tourism. With its 44,000
acres of water and 750 miles of wooded shoreline, it creates ideal
habitats for snakes such as water moccasins, rat snakes and
copperheads.
While the lake remains a resident
favorite for recreation, visitors should be aware that these slithering
residents are a natural part of the ecosystem.
Kash Patel made the FBI buy a custom fleet of armored BMW X5 for him to ride around in, according to MS NOW. The standard version of the X5 costs about $70,000.
“It
offers protection not just against attacks with blunt instruments and
handguns, but also against the world’s most widely used firearm, the
AK-47,” the car’s description reads.
Patel’s FBI spokesperson claimed—without evidence—that this is actually saving the American taxpayer money.
“Government
agencies, including the FBI, routinely evaluate, replace and update
vehicle fleets based on usage, security needs or budgetary decisions,”
Ben Williamson told MS NOW. “The specific decisions referenced in this
article were evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by
picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient.”
"Democratic political strategist James Carville recently weighed in on Doug Jones’ chance of winning the 2026 race for governor of Alabama.
“Doug is in the hunt,” Carville told his Politics War Room podcast co-host Al Hunt in a video this week. “If we’re ever going to succeed in a state like Alabama it’s going to be with a guy like Doug,” he said, calling Jones an “outstanding human.”
Carville pointed to U.S. Sen Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., as Jones’ best hope for winning the 2026 race for governor. He said Tuberville
is the “gold standard of stupidity,” when asked if Jones has a shot.
Carville added that he thinks Tuberville’s lack of intelligence could
only be topped by U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss."
He
interrupted prime time television to yell at the American people this
week because he does not know what to do besides yell. He can’t convince
and he can’t persuade and so he demands, in the hope that he can
browbeat the public into giving him the praise he thinks he deserves.
I think he’ll find that this isn’t going to work."
"Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stunned Republicans by abruptly
announcing her January retirement. The Rome Republican has since warned
that the party is headed for midterm defeat because of its unswerving
loyalty to Trump."
"The holiday season can be a difficult time for
many people, particularly those experiencing grief, loneliness or mental
health challenges. Help is available.
In the U.S., the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or via online chat at 988lifeline.org. The service is free and available 24/7.
Alabama has its own crisis numbers for residents to reach out to for those seeking help.
The
Crisis Center (Central Alabama) can be reached at 205-323-7777 or in
North Alabama at 256-716-1000 or 1-800-691-8426. Lifeline Counseling
Services can be reached at 251-602-0909."
“Particularly
disappointing is the silence from Alabama Republicans after their
attempts to bully, fire, and silence anyone who made a statement
following the death of Charlie Kirk,” said Sheena Gamble, a spokesperson
for the party.
“Not
a single one of them has come out and condemned President Trump’s
remarks either because they dare not criticize their king or because
they agree with his remarks. No calls to censure him, no calls to fire
anyone celebrating the death of the Reiners. Their silence screams.”
“The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously
today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F.
Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” center spokeswoman
Roma Daravi said in a statement.
Can we have a building somewhere WITHOUT the tRump name on it ???????????????????????????????????????
I'm NOT likely to be attending anything there, regardless of the name. But NOW I will avoid ANY offer to go there.
I wanted to see the vote totals to see who caved in, and the Washington Post story included this:
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the board, said the vote was “not unanimous.”
“I was on that call and as I tried to push my button to
voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support
of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted,” she
said in a video posted to X.
WARSAW
- China’s electric-vehicle industry captured half its domestic market
in just a few years, crushing sales of gasoline-powered vehicles from
once-dominant global automakers.
But
foreign players weren’t the only losers. Many Chinese legacy automakers
also watched their sales collapse – and responded by flooding the world
with fossil-fuel vehicles they couldn’t sell at home.
While
Western policymakers have focused on the threat of China’s heavily
subsidized EVs, protecting their markets with tariffs, U.S. and European
automakers face greater competition from China’s gas-guzzlers in
countries from Poland to South Africa to Uruguay. Fossil-fuel vehicles
have accounted for 76% of Chinese auto exports since 2020, and total
annual shipments jumped from 1 million to likely more than 6.5 million
this year, according to data from China-based consultancy Automobility.
Given Rob Reiner’s contributions to American culture—from his days as a sitcom star on All in the Family to his direction of iconic films such as When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men—it was entirely appropriate for the president of the United States to weigh in on his horrifying death over the weekend.
Sadly,
the way President Donald Trump has done so is beyond the pale. His
Monday post on Truth Social is worth reading in full, in part because
many Republican lawmakers will spend the next few days claiming not to
have seen it.
Trump later referred to the murdered Reiner as “bad for our country.” (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
This
is what we know. Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found
stabbed to death on Sunday. Their troubled son, 32-year-old Nick
Reiner, has been arrested for their murder.
There is no evidence that the slaying had anything to do with Trump.
But the president has a penchant for making everything about himself,
and so he has here, casting their deaths as somehow the result of their
opposition to him and his politics.
We’re living through an era of political violence, something we take very seriously. We’ve publishednumerousessays
on how Americans can and must come together and solve our differences
the way they are meant to be solved: civil debate, the democratic
process, a respectful airing of differences. Those values are at the
heart of everything we do.
In
his 50-plus years as a top American entertainer, Reiner—like most major
Hollywood figures—was a liberal. And like a solid percentage of the
country, he did not care for Trump. But there is no indication this was
an act of political violence, and it is obscene for the president to try
to make it into one.
Many Americans have come to expect the
president to be petulant and self-centered. We’ve become inured to his
wild social media ramblings. Yet he still finds ways to shock us on
occasion; his statement on Reiner is exceptionally beneath the office he
holds. Rob Reiner was not a political figure. He was merely an
outspoken supporter of liberal causes, which of course was his right.
After
a horrific weekend that included a lethal shooting at Brown University,
the killing of three Americans by ISIS in Syria, and the slaughter of
16 people celebrating Hanukkah on a beach in Australia, the leader of
the free world should be looking to unite Americans and condemn bigotry
and violence wherever they take place in the world. Instead, he is
kicking the corpse of someone who made movies that brought Americans
together.
After this awful weekend, Trump has once again lowered the bar for what we can expect from the president.
Much
has been written about how social media brings out the worst in people.
We saw this after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, which was celebrated by many accounts
on Bluesky, a left-wing alternative to X. But the overwhelming majority
of Democratic lawmakers hit the right note, condemning Kirk’s murder
and calling for peace.
Now, after this awful weekend, Trump
has once again lowered the bar for what we can expect from the
president. His accomplishments are real, particularly in the realm of
foreign policy and in securing the southern border. But there’s a
casual, unthinking cruelty that sometimes runs through him. Today, that
dark side of his personality was on full display.
As mentioned earlier, Reiner’s breakout role was on All in the Family,
the iconic 1970s sitcom where he played the liberal foil to his
father-in-law, Archie Bunker. The show and its creators skewed left, but
Archie always got to make his case, and became something of a
conservative icon in the process. In the end, the point of the show was
that they were all family, and they did all love each other, no matter
the political differences they had. Their disagreements became heated
and Archie let the insults fly—“Meathead,” he called his son-in-law when
they argued politics. Still, the show recognized and respected their
basic decency as Americans, and as human beings.
It’s a
sentiment we could use more of today, one in keeping with our country’s
floundering civic religion and sense of boundaries. Instead, we’re
treated to the shameful spectacle of the president of the United States
mocking a man who had just been savagely murdered alongside his wife.
Trump
almost certainly won’t walk it back, and the usual suspects will find
some rhetorical contortions with which to defend this outburst. But
there is no point in anyone defending this. It should be widely
opposed—particularly by those who otherwise support him.
President Trump seized on the stabbing
death of Rob Reiner and his wife to make a baseless attack on the
Hollywood director less than a day after reports of his killing,
suggesting that Mr. Reiner’s criticism of Mr. Trump may have led to his
murder.
The attack on Mr. Reiner, so
soon after his death, prompted a rare backlash against the president
from some MAGA-aligned Republicans, some of whom urged the president to
retract his comments.
Mr. Trump wrote
on Truth Social on Monday that Mr. Reiner’s death was “reportedly due to
the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and
incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP
DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
================================================
No tRump, YOU are the disease infecting this great country.
This accident indirectly led to me moving to Birmingham for a job that included flying in a similar chopper, doing traffic reports for a decade or two. I'm not sure if I knew much, if anything, about the accident when I took the job working with Bob Rowe and Steve Sanders on the air in the WERC Radio newsroom, including doing traffic reports! And, truthfully, I'm not sure, if I DID know, that it would have dissuaded me from taking the job!
“The truth is, Obamacare destroyed—absolutely destroyed—our health care system," Tuberville said.
“It
is completely unaffordable. As a result, American families are now
paying the enormous price for Barack Obama and woke Democrats’ Obamacare
system.”
And we can believe Tuberville because of...what? His great record speaking about healthcare???? Is there ANYTHING the Democrats have done that he approved of? ANYTHING?????????? Of course not.
Gee, it's almost like his comments are...political and nothing more?????
That's
it. We're finished showing movies for the year. There are a few private
rentals to take care of, and then it is time for me to say goodbye.
Ideally
this would be a letter thanking people by name for all they've done for
me, and for the Capri Theatre, for the last 40 years. Fortunately,
there are too many people to thank. I know I would overlook too many,
and anyway, it would end up reading like the acknowledgments chapter of a
too long book.
Instead, I wish a collective "Thank You" to everyone who has supported me in one way or another.
Certainly the friends I have made. Those I still have, and those I miss.
The
people who took a chance and hired me in 1985 - the ones who thought it
was a good idea, and those who didn't at first, but later came around.
Thanks
to the Board Members, especially the Board Presidents, who put up with
me over the years. Who contributed a portion of your life to steering
the Capri. Through police raids, controversial films, collapsed
ceilings, and every calamity, big or small, we thought may close the
Capri. And always scraping together the money. Money to pay the bills,
buy the building, convert to digital, put up a new marquee, and
everything it takes to run a single screen theatre in Montgomery.
And,
of course thanks to all of the people who make the Capri possible. Your
support - through memberships, donations, attendance, time, and work
- is the real reason the Capri still exists. No matter what, you have
never let us down.
That
includes those who have volunteered your time and work to the Capri.
Some of you have volunteered for decades, and most likely will outlast
my record at the Capri.
And
to our many past - and current few - employees, most of whom have been
at the theatre for at least a decade. Your work, loyalty, and dedication
are appreciated.
It's
beginning to read like the acknowledgments chapter I wanted to avoid.
It's time for me to go. I've done what I could at the Capri, though not
everything I wanted. I think it will be in good hands. They will be
facing some challenges I'm glad I won't, so please show them the support
you've shown me.
I'll
still be around. I'll just be an old guy telling stories. So many of
which will be about the Capri. Thanks for letting me have them.
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"A teacher who told year six children that Rosa Parks "did not exist" and that Martin Luther King was guilty of plagiarism has been banned.
Patrick Lawler, 62, was found to have brought the teaching profession into disrepute after making a series of offensive comments.
Witnesses explained to the panel how he had told year six pupils in a transition day lesson that Martin Luther King was a “fraud and had embezzled lots of money”, and that Rosa Parks “did not really exist”.
The matter came to light when a parent complained about the lesson, which was meant to be on medieval history."
SOURCE: HERE.